The Falling Leaves

Ah, Fall. The beauty of the colors, the crisp invigorating air, pumpkins, cider, Halloween. Never mind that Fall eventually gives way to old man winter. And never mind that someone has to rake-up all those lovely leaves. But isn't it great that after the raking there's always the temptation to jump in the pile like a little kid?

The City of Alliance's leaf collection program is underway. On October 28 collection in biodegradable paper leaf bags began. But don't put the leaves in regular old grocery bags. They won't hold up in the rain. The biodegradable bags that should be used are available at stores such as Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle and Thorne's. Calling ahead to see if they have the bags would be a good idea. Just set the bags out on your curb lawn the day after your trash pickup and the city crew will be by to pick them up.

On November 4 the collection of bulk leaves begins. By bulk leaves we mean piles of leaves. Just rake them to the curb lawn and again, the city crew will come along and suck up those leaves in their big leaf-mulching machine. You can help out the process by getting your car out of the way when it's time for your street to be done. Just watch the newspaper to see what area of the city is being done. It's hard to miss that big machine and the noise it makes. It's like a giant vacuum cleaner with a big black hose. When you notice the crews getting closer to your house, please try to move your car off the street. It will make the whole process go much more quickly and smoothly if they don't have to play dodge 'em cars.

Please remember to put your leaves as close to the pavement as possible. But don't rake them into the street. When you do that the leaves get washed down into the storm sewers and clog everything up. They also clog up the grates in the street on top of the storm sewers. This can cause street flooding if we get a heavy rain. Another thing to remember is not to put them out too early. If you do that, they just get blown around and make a mess you might have to rake again. Watch the newspaper for when the city street crew will be in your neighborhood and then rake your leaves out at that time.

The leaf program generally goes for about six weeks. This year it will end December 13. Last year the leaf program collected 306 bags of leaves. They collected 657 tons (yes, tons) of bulk leaves. The leaves are taken to a privately owned site where they are disposed of at no cost to the city. In the collection of the leaves, the street department used 7 pieces of equipment and 12 city employees.

Those employees spent 2,127 hours collecting leaves at a cost of $45,882.31. That cost includes fringe benefits such as health care coverage and retirement, so it isn't a straight hourly rate. Additional labor in the form of Community Improvement Workers (CIP) from Judge Lavery's court spent 208 hours collecting leaves. The workers are given a monetary credit toward their court fine for collecting leaves and that amounted to $1,300. And last but not least, that leaf sucking/mulching equipment and other street department equipment was operated at a cost of $20,922. The total cost of the six-week program is $68,104.31.

If you have questions about the program, you can call Street Superintendent Jeff Porter at 330-823-3133.